Dutch darts star Michael van Gerwen has revealed that he once helped to decorate the luxury bathroom of former Arsenal footballer Dennis Bergkamp.
Van Gerwen won £60,000 on Sunday by beating 16-time world champion Phil Taylor 11-7 to scoop first prize at the Players Championship Finals in Minehead.
However, before he was taking home five-figure sums for his sporting exploits, the 'Green Machine' had to subsidise his darting career by working as a tiler.
Van Gerwen told The Metro: "I used to work as a tiler when I was a teenager and the biggest job I had was putting the tiles up in Dennis Bergkamp's bathroom.
"He lived in a massive house, it was beautiful and it was something I never dreamt I would have because my darts career had not taken off at the time.
"Even his bathroom was expensive and we did a really good job on it."
Van Gerwen has earned over £1m in darts prize money and he will be aiming to pick up a further £250,000 by winning the PDC World Championship, which gets underway on December 13.
The 24-year-old will face Zoran Lerchbacher in round one, after being paired with the Austrian in yesterday's draw.
Robert Summerscales
